Playing with Linux

[Rustic23]

I have a 3/4 year old Compaq Presario V2000. I recently bought a new laptop, and decided I would try a Linux distribution on the old Presario.

I downloaded Ubuntu, Suse, Mandriva, DSL (dam small Linux) and Puppy. In the last week or so, I have installed each of these on the Compaq and on an old Pentium 3 desktop with 512 meg memory, and 16 g hard drive! All ran well, and for web type stuff as fast if not faster than Windows.

All would run from the CD drive without installing on the hard drive. In my opinion, all but DSL and Puppy are too slow to run off the CD. Puppy install in a ram disk, so it is very fast.

Here are some thoughts. Only Puppy worked well on the laptop. Seems these laptops have a broadcom wireless and configuring it was a real pain in all the others. Puppy is a very small linux and I think very similar to what runs on the Asus eepc. It ran great on the Presario, and can be reinstalled in less than 15 min. 10 if you don't have to reformat the drives.

Mandriva would not install on the laptop.

DSL was nice, but could not get the wireless to work

Ubunto was the closest to Windows on the desktop, however it took a very long time to install and update. Never got the modem working on the laptop.

Suse was the most recomended. It worked well on the desktop, but could not get the wireless to work on the laptop.

If you are using a laptop that does not use the broadcom modems, then any of these should work.

Puppy takes less than 30 sec to boot, and 10 sec to shut down. I like that! You can run either Foxpro or Opera. It comes with a solid word processor, spreadsheet, and graphics programs. It runs just about all linux programs, however, I am not sure how to do this.

I have never run linux before. Still don't have a clue how the command line works. Not sure where packages go when they are installed. Having run windows since it came out, Linux is a mystery. However, I like it, and you can't beat the price... Free!

 

[kumquat]

So, what's your question?

 

[haha]

So, what's your question?

I think he is sharing interesting information, rather than asking a question.

Ha

 

[Keyboard Ninja]

This would have been awesome in my "studying UNIX" thread lol.

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/studying-unix-redhat-etc-39270.html

 

[donheff]

Man, this reminded me that I have a Ubuntu box in the basement serving as a file and print server. I haven't updated in months. Guess I should try it and see what happens.

 

[Jeb-NY]

Used Linux for years when I was working and loved it. We regularly turned office machines that were deemed to slow to run whatever the latest Windows OS was in tho very peppy lab machines running Linux. I ran Mac OSX and Linux primarily when working and still go into the terminal window on OSX once in awhile to do things that are just easier without the UI getting in the way. Also good just to keep my fingers in the command line world once in awhile.

Jeb

 

[donheff]

Well, the update was easy. Now I clicked on the online upgrade to Harvest Hassle, or Nutty Ninja or whatever the latest version is called. We shall see if that is as smooth.

 

[Rustic23]

I have had a computer since 1978. However, other than some early CPM, I have been an MS-Dos and Windows kind of a guy. With retirement, I have had time to try out Linux, so I just thought I would pass of some of the things I discovered from a Linux new guy aspect.

On the Laptop Ubuntu front, I finally got it working on the Presario V2000. Have not tried to install a printer on it yet, but have the wireless working. It took five or six installs, and lots of web browsing, but it is working. So far Ubuntu seems to be more like windows. It can be hibernated, although I have not tried this, it appears fast and so far stable. I still like the boot speed of Puppy, but it just does not seem to be stable.

Now off to the book store for some Linux books.

 

[donheff]

Well the upgrade went fine -- it is the Hardy Heron version by the way. It took a while because I had to interact at various stages and I was in and out of the house. Also, the linux box is a headless thing down in the basement - I administer it thru a VNC session. I have never bothered to setup the VNC session to start on reboot. So when I restarted to effect all the upgrade changes I needed to hook up a monitor to login in and start VNC. But all is well for another year or so - although Hardy Heron goes back to April so I will probably be ready for another upgrade soon.